


The Adventures of Abigail Higgs and Potter Boy

by WalkingDredd



Series: Next Generation Collection [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Community: HPFT, F/M, Flirting, Friendship, Muggle Studies, Romance, comic books, love potion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-02-04 23:55:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1797973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WalkingDredd/pseuds/WalkingDredd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The idea of a misfit schoolgirl catching the attention of the most popular boy at Hogwarts is, in Abigail Higgs' opinion, merely a story in one of the comic books her father is famous for creating. However, with a love of comics and a determination to turn fiction into reality, James Potter would like to disagree.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The One Where James Knocks Me Down

My sixth year at Hogwarts was going to be exactly like every other year that I had spent at the castle, average and uneventful. Which was my life in a nutshell. Although, falling out with my best friend more times than I can even begin to count definitely counted as eventful. So, only half of that statement was true.

My grades were definitely average. Except for my Muggle Studies grade of course, but that was neither here nor there. There weren't many people who classed Muggle Studies as an actual subject, so I’m sure that no one would care about the grades.

As I watched my brother handing my trunk over to the Porter, to place on the train for me, I thought about what sixth year would bring me. Maybe this year Michelle and I would move passed her jealousy and obvious trust issues to have a year of no fall outs? I almost scoffed at my thoughts as soon as they arrived. It wouldn't surprise me if Michelle found a reason to fall out with me whilst we were on the train. Why would we change a habit of a lifetime? It's been well known that humans don’t cope well with change, so I’m not sure we could handle not having a fall out.

“Have I lost you in that mind of yours again?” I heard my brother ask me, pulling me from my deep thoughts as I turned to look at him with a sly grin and a roll of my brown eyes. “I’m surprised that we managed to get you out of your room to come back to school. You spent the entire summer stuck in there and not venturing out unless it was for food.”

“There’s going to be food on the train,” I informed him, it was Daryl’s turn to roll his eyes before he grabbed me and pulled me into a hug. He was quite a bit taller then me, so his chin resting on the top of my head.

Daryl was two years older than me and had graduated from Hogwarts in the June. He life now consisted of moping around on the sofa and stealing my sweets, as he tried to decide what he wanted to do with is life.

“I’m going to miss you, Abigail.” He said kissing the top of my head, I grinned as I hugged him closer, I always hated saying goodbye.

I may be sad about the fact that both of my parents were working, leaving them unable to bring me here themselves. I was glad that Daryl had taken the time to bring me back to school himself.

Daryl let go of me and bent down to pick up the cage that contained my cat Snowball, before handing it to me.

“You best get going before the train leaves and I’m stuck with you again.” Daryl told me.

“Just when I think we’re having a nice interaction.” I said with a shake of my head, the cage heavy in my arms. I gave a smile to him before I began to make my way through the crowds of people on the platform.

I climbed aboard the train and began to make my way down along the carriages. I glanced in each compartment that I passed as I looked for Michelle. I hoped that I would find her soon the cage in my hands was beginning to weigh me down, Snowball wasn’t helping me in anyway by moving around. I spotted Michelle after a short time of searching and joined her in the compartment. I gave her a smile in greeting as I placed the cage on the seat opposite her. I gave a huge sigh of relief, I could hear Michelle’s chuckle as I took off my backpack before sitting down.

“He is getting quite heavy now; I think I need to cut back on his food.” I said as I leant across the seat so that I could shut the door of the compartment, wanting to be able to let Snowball out of the cage for a while. Snowball seemed to not want to leave the cage after I had opened the door of it for him; choosing instead to just look at me. He was beginning to resemble a giant ball of white candy floss with eyes.

“Are you not even going to come out?” I asked him, he ignored me as he decided to lie down in what looked like an uncomfortable position.

Michelle gave a laugh as I rolled my eyes and shook my head. I pushed a hand through my long brunette hair as I turned to look at my friend. I noticed that she had cut her blonde hair, so that it was now shoulder length.

“He is the strangest cat that I’ve ever met.” I informed her.

“Do you meet many strange animals?” Michelle asked me, amusement dancing in her eyes.

“Not that many,” I stated as I got myself more comfortable in my seat as the train began to move out of the station. “How have you been? I like your hair.”

“Thank you,” Michelle said as her hand went to her shorter hair, “Takes a while to get used to but I like it. It cheered me up a bit after finding out that Lucien got the Captains badge instead of me; I felt for sure that this was going to be my year. Now, there’s no chance of me being a captain because Lucien is in our year. So, unless he gets kicked off of the team, gives away his captain’s badge or just does such a terrible job that he’s forced to give up the badge. There’s no hope.”

I nodded along with Michelle’s words as she continued talking. I had heard the same speech over and over since our Hogwarts letters had arrived. Michelle had written to me straight away, telling me that she didn’t get the Captains badge. To which I replied with my sadness that she didn’t get the badge, even though in all honesty I couldn’t care less about Quidditch. I did feel sorry for my friend who had wanted nothing more than to be captain.

“But I finally got that new broom that dad promised me if I got good grades in my O.W.L exams, so that is a bonus. I guess I could put up with Lucien though, give him a few pointers and ideas for plays that he could try out.”

I gave a nod at her words as I reached down for my backpack, reaching in so that I could get the drink I had packed in here as well as a few comic books. I pulled out the first one that my hands reached, smiling as I looked down at the cover of it.

I could almost hear Michelle rolling her eyes, “I guess that now is the time when I make my own entertainment,” she stated.

She knew me so well.

“Yep, I want to get some reading in before we get to school.”

“We’ve got hours yet,” Michelle informed me as she reached into her own back to pull a magazine out for her to read. “So you should be able to get in at least one.”

I smiled as I opened my comic book to the page that I had left it at last night, making myself more comfortable in the seat. I heard Michelle flipping the pages of her magazine, both of us falling into a relaxing silence with each other.

Looking down at the pictures on the page, I could see the Hero of the story running from frame to frame of the story as someone chased him.

They all ran through two frames on the comic strip before the hero stopped on the third to shoot some spells backwards. The bright splashes of light from the spells illuminated the previous frame, which the villains were now in.

I felt myself getting lost in the story again as I watched the story unfolding before my eyes. It has always amazed me that no matter how many times that I read a comic book I would always find something different to look at. It was like the story was different each time somehow, It was as though the adventures of the characters were real.

This was the major difference between Wizarding comics and Muggle comic books. The pages of Muggle ones would stay completely still, whereas the Wizarding ones moved. Some would even emit sounds and smells and at times things would jump off of the page at you.

I had an obsession with reading them and yet I didn’t know many people that shared the same fascination as I did with them. Michelle had tried to read one but she had gotten bored of the storyline. She didn’t seem to understand that she would need to read further in to understand what was going on.

The words, ‘You’ve got nowhere left to run now,’ flashed across the page indicating that one of the villains was talking. He was looking at the Hero who was standing on the edge of a cliff, the other villain had perished in the previous fight a few frames ago.

‘Face your death like a man,’ the words flashed up again. I noticed that it was the crazy one of the two, he had sold his soul a few comics ago to get more power, and it had begun to drive him insane.

The Hero shook his head before raising his wand; the villain raised his as well.

Two sets of words, that I knew were spells, flashed across the page before a flash of colour. The words ‘To be continued...’ came up on the page, it was a few moments before the entire page replayed itself. I closed the book, eager to learn the outcome of the Hero and Villain. But as this was the latest edition out I knew that I would have to wait a few weeks until my father would send me the next one. So for something to do I decided to flip to the first page and begin reading that edition again.

A few hours and two more comic books later, I decided to get changed into my school robes. I grabbed for my them out of my backpack, ignoring the fact that they would now have creases and stood up.   
I could get the creases out with my wand later on.

“I’m going to go and get changed,” I informed Michelle, who nodded at me as she continued reading the magazine from earlier. She hadn’t managed to finish it as she had taken a nap for a while, something that I was now wishing that I had the sense to do.

“I’ll go and get ready later on, I not sure I have the energy to change yet,” Michelle told me with a shrug.

I nodded at her before leaving the compartment and walking down the corridor, the bathroom wasn’t that far away.

About ten minutes later I had changed and was beginning to make my way back down the corridor, my normal clothes bundled up my hands. I watched out of the train window as the scenery passed by me in a blur. I was trying to figure out how many days it would be until the next edition of the comic would be out. I wondered if I would be able to survive that long before I would want to explode in an impatient rage. Before I could dwell on that for long I snapped out of my thoughts by a loud yell.

Frowning, I looked up but someone slammed into me and pushed me to the floor as they crashed on top of me.

“What the hell is going on?” I cried before I could stop myself. My back was hurting as was my arse where I had landed. I was going to bruise I could feel them forming already, I attempted to move but the person on top of me was preventing that from happening.

“I am so sorry, Abigail,” the person said as they managed to get up off of me and stood up, holding a hand down for me to take. When I looked up I noticed that the person who had barrelled into me was none other than James Potter.

Well, this was different.

I took his hand with a grateful smile and he helped to pull me to my feet. He dusted down my arms before bending down and picking up the bundle of clothes that had fallen from my grasp. He handed them to me as I stared at him, wondering if I should tell him off for hurting me? I settled for just continuing to stare at him.

"I am so sorry, Abigail. I did yell but I think you were in your own little world. It's my fault for running in the first place though; I’m trying to find someone. Are you hurt?" He asked me in concern.

I stared at him for a few more moments before giving a slow shake of my head as I processed his rambling.

"It’s okay, I’m just shocked. It’s not every day you have someone literally running into you." I joked, James gave a laugh.

"We can tell people, 'hey, guess who I just ran into' and it will in fact be true." James stated with a wide grin, I gave a laugh at his joke and James seemed happy about the fact that I had.

"I best be off, but I haven’t hurt you have I, you’re feeling okay?" He asked me again, his eyes flickering over me as though searching for any wounds.

"I’m fine, James." I told him, feeling my cheeks beginning to get warm.

"Good. I'll see you around then." He said before running back off down the corridor.

I turned to watch him go with a small frown. I definitely had to admit that this was different. I could not remember an actual time that James and I have had a conversation, or at least one that lasted past, ‘Hello’. The fact that we were in two separate groups of people, or social hierarchy as Michelle liked to say, was the reason that we never spoke. We knew who the other was, who wouldn’t after being in the same year as each other for six years now.

I walked to the compartment that I shared with Michelle and closed the door behind myself, placing my bundle of clothes on the seat. I noticed that Snowball was now lying on top of my backpack, even though he was completely in my way I was glad that he managed to move from the cage.

"What took you so long?" Michelle asked me, I gave a smile as James’ earlier words popped into my head.

"Guess who I just ran into?"


	2. The One With The 'Supportive' Best Friend

Waking up early after six weeks of going to bed late was not an easy task, let me tell you that. Michelle didn't want to get out of bed, even though she knew that it was the start of classes today. It took me pulling the quilt off of her to force her to move out of it.

She may have only got out of bed to try and hit me, but I consider that a success.

I wasn’t looking forward to attempting to wake her up most mornings, especially as she’s old enough to be waking herself up. But I knew that if I didn’t she would only moan at me and somehow make it all my fault. So I chose her attempting to murder me for waking her up, then having her fall out with me over it.

There had been times when I had thought to myself that it would be much easier if I got myself another friend. One who wouldn’t fall out with me for no reason, or wouldn’t make me fear waking her up and feeling her wrath. But there was no point now, It was familiar and I will admit that I will put up with it just because I had for all these years. Why break the habit now?

Michelle stomped to the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind her; I gave a wince as the sound reverberated around the room. If our roommates weren’t already up and had gone for breakfast they would certainly be awake now.

“I’m going down for breakfast, I’ll meet you there,” I called through the door. I waited for a reply that didn’t come, before I rolled my eyes and left the room, picking up my bag as I passed it.

It wasn’t that long after I left the common room that I found myself at the Great Hall. Us Hufflepuff’s are quite lucky in that department. I’d hate to be a Ravenclaw or a Gryffindor, merely for the amount of time that it would take me to get to meal times. At least this way, if I overindulged during dessert, which happened often, I would only have to walk a minute and I’d be able to lie down on my bed and have a nap.

Who doesn’t love to nap after eating a lot of food?

I entered the Great Hall and took a seat at the Hufflepuff table not too far into the room. I found a gap beside a small group of first years; it was nice that they all decided to stick together for their first school day. I wonder how long it’ll be until they start to drift away from each other, or find new friends to hang around with? Michelle and I spent the first few weeks of our time at Hogwarts with our roommates Isabella Dempsie and Sian Mellor. But after a while we both broke off into our own group of friends. It’s not that Michelle and I didn’t like them, it’s just that was the way it turned out. In fact, it was them that didn’t seem to like Michelle. They thought that she tried to take over their lives too much and was always dictating what they all should do.

She still did the same with me, something which at times I hated, but I was and still am a bit of a push over. There have been times that I would have tried to have a talk with her about it all, but it wasn’t worth the hassle of having her stop talking to me over it. It was a childish behaviour I know, but I didn’t like having to walk around the school on my own when this happened. I would rather she talked to me then me realise that she’s basically my only friend.

“Miss Higgs, I have your class schedule here,” Mrs Henshaw, the Head of Hufflepuff and my Charms teacher, said as she handed me a piece of parchment. A smile was across her warm face as she looked down at me. I took it from her with thanks and looked down at it. “As you achieved good enough grades in your O.W.Ls, tyou are able to take the classes that you signed up for during your fifth year. Congratulations.”

“Thank you,” I said, looking up at her with a smile. I looked back down at my parchment and studied it as she walked away from me and to another student.

I noticed that what would have been my first lesson was a free period and then after that I would be going to Charms. I wondered if Michelle would have a free period as well. If so, she wouldn’t be happy to know that she could have spent longer in bed, but it’s not my fault that she’s not a morning person.

She’d somehow make out that this was my fault.

I was tempted to go back to the dormitory and make sure that she didn't go back to sleep. Maybe she would appreciate that I had woken her up so that she didn’t miss getting her schedule. She would have had to go to Mrs Henshaws office to get it and possibly missing her first lesson of the day. But she walked through the doors of the Great Hall, her blonde hair up in a ponytail.

I noticed that she didn’t have an angry look on her face, but she did have a tired one. She sat down opposite me and gave me a nod in greeting as she grabbed for some coffee and poured it into a cup, before beginning to drink it.

“Black coffee without any milk or sugar?” I enquired with her. “You must be tired if you’re touching that.”

Michelle nodded as she winced at the hotness of the coffee, “I didn’t get much sleep last night. I think it was the excitement of the first day of classes starting?”

I wasn’t sure if she was being serious or not. It didn’t sound like something that she would say to me, it had to be a joke.

Mrs Henshaw made her way back down and handed Michelle her schedule. Telling Michelle that she had achieved good enough grades to continue on her lessons that she had taken the year before. Michelle had stated that she wanted to drop Muggle Studies though. The teacher wasn’t too happy and neither was I actually. But the teacher waved their wand and the schedule changed so that Muggle Studies would be removed.

“Don’t give me that look, Abigail,” Michelle told me as she looked at her schedule. “I hated that class, it was boring.”

“Learning about Muggles isn’t boring.”

“Maybe not for you, but I grew up around them; it’s not that fun anymore.”

I was about to open my mouth and ask her who I was going to sit next to now, when she said something that shut me up.

"James is facing this way." She nodded behind me and I turned to see where she was looking at the Gryffindor table. By the time I found where James was sitting he was talking to his friend. I turned back around to face Michelle. "I bet you wouldn’t mind if he 'ran' into you again,"

I rolled my eyes at Michelle. "It was an accident."

"Of course it was an accident, there's no way James would have talked to you otherwise. He was just being polite because he knocked you both to the ground," she told me, causing me to want to do nothing more than curl up into a ball. She was right, I knew she was, but it still hurt to hear it.

"He has talked to me before, we said hello to each other once and he leant me a quill back in the third year."

"Which you did not give back and you had framed,"

"I did not frame it," I told her.

"You probably would have if you had the chance."

"No, I wouldn’t." I stated shaking my head again. “I’m not that weird. Besides, I don’t have a crush on him anymore.”

Michelle gave a scoff next to me and I rolled my eyes at her.

“I know you still have a crush on him, it’s obvious to everyone, Abigail. I wouldn’t be surprised if James knows and him talking to you now is the start of him telling you to back off.”

My frown deepened at her hurtful words. I could have easily mentioned Michelle’s obsession with Ethan Richards that she had since last year. But I wasn’t mean enough to say something to her or make fun of her. So I settled for a sigh again and continued to eat my food. Listening to the chatter of the people around me, catching up with each other and telling stories about their holidays.

I tried to resist the urge to look back at James; he was sitting with his friend William and some of the other Gryffindor boys from our year. I didn’t know what I was expecting looking up at him before. That maybe he would be watching me?

I frowned as I stabbed my fork into my food and my mood soured.

I was kidding myself; we talked on the train because he was apologising to me, there was nothing more. There never would be anything more and I knew it. Feeling the weight of dejection and embarrassment flooding through me. I wanted nothing more than to leave the Great Hall and to be up in her dormitory reading and being with my cat. At least my cat loved me, although that was probably only because I was the one who fed him and fussed over him.

“Oh come on, Abigail, there’s no need to get your wand in a knot,” Michelle said to me with a small laugh, “I was only having a joke with you; you need to stop being so sensitive all the time.”

I wanted to tell her that the reason my ‘wand was in a knot’ was because of what she had said to me. I wanted to tell her that she needed to start treating me a lot better, I was growing tired of her jokes. Maybe this year could be the start of a new Abigail? One who spoke her mind and didn’t let anyone walk over her.

I looked up at her; she rolled her eyes at me and shook her head, “I’m going back to the dormitory, when you get over this come and find me.” She pushed away from the table and stood up, leaving the room, her half eaten plate of food left behind.

I wish I wasn’t such a bloody push over; that should have been me walking out of the Hall, and I should have been the one who had the last word.

I gave a sigh as I placed my knife and fork down on the table and stood up myself. Pushing my hair out of my eyes, I turned around so that I could make my own way out of the Hall. I let myself glance over at where I knew James was sitting and noticed with a clench of my stomach that he was looking at me again. He gave me a smile and small wave when he noticed that I was looking at him. I waved back awkwardly at him before I darted out of the room, knowing that I looked like a fool in doing so.

Damn! Why couldn’t I behave how I did back on the train? Why did Michelle have to voice my own fears about James only talking to me because he had to and turn me into an even more pathetic mess?

She had managed to zap every bit of confidence I had at talking to James from me and I was annoyed at myself for letting her. Maybe I could work on going back to the Abigail I was when James was talking to me on the train?

I walked slowly away from the Great Hall, not knowing what I was going to do between now and my lesson; I had a whole hour to waste. Maybe I could use this time to work on what I wanted to change in my life? Work on my confidence and summon up the courage to tell my supposed best friend that she needed to be nicer to me. I felt unease spread through me at those thoughts. I knew that I couldn’t stand the thought of falling out with her and having to deal with being alone because I had no other friends. I knew that I was going to find her and apologise for being so sensitive about things, even though I didn’t believe that I was in the wrong.

I really hated myself sometimes.


	3. The One With The Love Potion

I had spent most of my day attending classes, mainly because that was something teachers expected of me at Hogwarts. Otherwise there would be no point in me being here. Although I suppose that this could become a holiday camp of some sort. A place where we can all have parties and games. If we ignore the fact that I would never go to any of this parties or games as I’m not that great at talking to people.

Speaking of talking to people, Michelle is now talking to me again.

It was in our second lesson of the day that Michelle actually began talking to me again. I knew that our little bicker from earlier was forgotten. I let us both ignore it, it was easier to have her talking to me again than it was to not have her around. Our first lesson of the day was a bit awkward, we just sat in silence really whilst I tried to think of a way to get her to talk to me again. I’m not sure what actually made her start talking to me again, but I’m not complaining.

I didn’t much like having my lessons alone, or in total silence because I had no one to speak to. I had already been making excuses for Michelle’s behaviour earlier by telling myself that she was just tired. Lame, I know, but what else was I going to do? Accept the fact that my only friend in the world doesn’t seem to want to be around me?

Michelle seemed a lot happier once we had arrived at our last lesson of the day, which was Potions. I think she was just happy that soon the first full day of lessons would be over. It meant that she could finally corner Lucien and get him to listen to her talking about Quidditch. It was the first day back and she was already thinking about Quidditch trials that wouldn’t even happen for another few weeks. I would have told her to calm down, but it made her happy. It also kept her occupied enough, to not bring up the fact that James Potter was in this lesson with us. He didn’t seem to have noticed that I had walked into the room and had taken a seat at a desk near the front of the class. I wasn’t going to turn around and make a fool of myself by being caught staring at him. So I settled for getting some parchment out of my bag as Michelle handed me a quill, putting a pot of ink between us so that we could share it.

A sudden sweet smell filled my nose and I looked in front of my desk, noticing a cauldron for the first time at the front of the room and near the teacher’s desk. I wondered what was in it and why it smelt so god damn delicious. Chancing a look around the room, I saw that I wasn’t the only one who noticed the smell that was filling the room.

“Are you trying to stare at James?”

I whipped my head back around to the front and turned to Michelle as I shook my head at her.

“Of course not, I was just wondering who was in the lesson that’s all.”

“Sure, you were,” Michelle said with a small laugh.

I gave a sigh and put my head in my hand as I looked at the cauldron again. I was trying to ignore the fact that I was wishing Michelle wasn’t talking to me at that moment. Mainly because I wouldn’t have had to feel embarrassed to look around the classroom as I had done.

Hearing a commotion at the back of the classroom, I knew that the teacher had arrived. I heard him walking to the front of the classroom as my fellow students took their seats so that the lesson could begin.

“Quiet down class and pay attention,” the Potions teacher, Professor Noble, called to us. Professor Noble was in his forties, tall and had black hair that was beginning to go grey.

Professor Noble moved straight to the cauldron that was emitting the beautiful smells. I wanted to just spend the rest of the day in this classroom. “Congratulations on achieving a good enough O.W.L.s grade to continue this class. We’ll jump straight into work, shall we? Can anyone tell me what’s in the cauldron in front of me?”

I looked around the classroom as everyone went silent. I couldn’t say that I knew what the potion was, I wasn’t sure that I had ever seen it before. There was silence for a few more moments, before James laughed and said, “It’s a potion, Professor Noble.”

A few people laughed around him and James nudged one of his friends. I was trying not to laugh at James’s words as Michelle shook her head next to me. Professor Noble gave James a tight smile before telling the class to quieten down again.

“Very true, Potter. But can you tell me what the potion is?” Professor Noble asked him with an eyebrow raised.

“It’s a love potion, Sir,” James told them. One of his friends made a comment that I couldn’t hear and they began laughing again. Michelle seemed more interested in this potion now that she knew what it was; I hoped she didn’t make a comment on me being able to use it on James. “It’s said that the smell emitted from it varies depending on the person who smells it.”

“You’re right, James, a love potion smells different to each individual person. Perhaps you would like to tell the class what it smells like to you?” Professor Noble asked him daringly.

James gave a shrug, before stepping away from his desk and moving forwards to the front of the class and near my desk. Once he stopped in front of it, he took a deep breath, his eyes closing and a small smirk filling his face.

I couldn’t help but watch him.

“I can smell -” He took another deep breath, “-Honey, parchment, strawberries and.... ink?” James said with a small frown with his last words as he opened his eyes again, he shook his head and gave a laugh.

I was amazed that James willingly told the class what he could smell. Especially in front of his friends, Barry Ingle and Elijah Morse, who were laughing and mocking James over what he had described smelling.

“Parchment? Who on earth smells parchment?” I heard Barry laugh, as he shoved Elijah. Elijah began to start snorting from the amount of laughing he was doing. I rolled my eyes at their behaviour; James seemed to be ignoring them.

“Be quiet,” Professor Noble stated, repeating himself, “Maybe you’d like to tell the class what you smell in the potion, Ingle?”

“No chance,” Barry Ingle snorted, crossing his arms across his chest and shaking his head. His dark eyes still held laughter in them.

“Didn’t think so,” Professor Noble said, “Thank you for that, James.”

James nodded before going back to his desk; I looked away from him, not wanting him to catch me staring at him.

“Now, if you all take your places back around your desks, you’ll all get your own chance to find out what true love smells like to you. As for this lesson we are going to be learning how to make this.” Professor Noble waved his wand and instructions began to appear on the board behind him. “Instructions are on the board, you best get started.”

I turned to Michelle, who was already muttering about the ingredients that we would need. As I got the cauldron ready, she dashed off to the cupboard the other side of the room. It was nice to know that her competitive streak wasn’t lost over the holidays, not that I expected it to. In fact, I think it might have gotten worse since she found out that she hadn’t become Captain of the Hufflepuff team. I knew that she was going to try and show that she would have been the better choice.

~~~

“So, what do you smell?” Michelle asked me as she took a whiff of the potion that we had finished.

I leant forwards and took a deep breath, the smell of chocolate filling my lungs, mixed with a hint of apple and coconuts. I could smell parchment, just like James did, as well as rain. That’s weird.

“Er...” I faltered, not sure if I wanted to tell her. I suddenly became insecure and I knew that if Michelle found out about the parchment smell I’d hear no end to it. She already thought that my crush on James was hilarious. “Chocolate, coconuts and apples. How ‘bout you?”

“Grass, soap and polish.” Michelle told me, she seemed almost smug about something. “That’s clearly a sign that I’ll love a Quidditch player.”

I felt almost bad that I didn’t divulge the last two fragrances that I could smell, but I knew that she too was holding back. I tried not to let it bother me.

I gave her a smile before we heard giggling from near us. We both turned to see that Elijah and Barry were whispering to each other with a vial in their hands. I saw Barry slip it into his pocket before looking over at the teacher. I turned to look at the teacher as well and saw that he was having a serious word with James about something that was in the potions book that James was holding.

I turned back to Michelle, who was putting her stuff back into her school bag, whilst we prepared ourselves to leave when the bell would ring.

“I think that Barry has slipped a vial of the potion into his robes. Should we tell the teacher?” I asked her.

Michelle shook her head. “It’s got nothing to do with us, so just ignore it. We don’t want to make them hate us or draw attention to ourselves do we?” she answered. “Besides, it’s not our problem.”

I deliberated for a moment as the bell rang around us and my fellow students began moving towards the door. I followed Michelle as I decided that it wasn’t my problem. It probably wouldn’t be long before Barry and Elijah were caught with whatever they had planned and they would be suitably punished by a teacher.

“Ouch!” I cried, my hand flying to my head as I felt my hair being tugged from behind me. I turned around quickly and in anger; how dare someone pull my hair? But when I turned I saw that the closest person behind me was walking in the opposite direction. Unless they had super human speed it couldn’t have been them. I turned back around and saw Michelle waiting for me with a concerned look on her face.

“What’s up?” She asked me as I neared her, still rubbing the small sore spot on my head.

“It felt like someone was tugging my hair,” I told her. “But I couldn’t see who it was.”

“It was probably Peeves,” Michelle said as she looked up to the ceiling as though Peeves would be floating around. I looked up with her and saw that the corridor was void of the Poltergeist.

“Maybe it was. What’s the point in that though? What is pulling my hair going to achieve?” I stated, feeling annoyed the Poltergeist chose me as a victim today.

“Let’s just put our stuff in our dormitory and then come down for dinner,” Michelle told me. I agreed and we began walking towards the Hufflepuff common room. “Try not to worry about it, Peeves doesn’t have a reason for most of the things he does around here.”

I nodded at her words, knowing that she was right.

“Oh, actually on second thought, can I just meet you in the hall? I see Lucien and I want to talk to him about the upcoming tryouts, try and get my input in,” Michelle asked me. I gave her a nod and told her to go. She bounded off, leaving me to walk to the common room on my own. I didn’t mind, I could now go down to dinner a bit later; I wanted to make sure that my cat was okay. I tried to ignore the fact that I wasn’t that far away from becoming a crazy cat lady. One that couldn’t stop thinking about her cat during the day when she was away from him.

After checking on Snowball, who was still fast asleep where I had left him on my bed at lunch time, the lazy sod. I began walking to the Great Hall, wondering if Michelle was in there yet, or if she was still talking Lucien’s ear off about Quidditch.

In the short walk I had to the Great Hall, I could feel a presence behind me for most of it as though I were being followed. I turned around quickly, scared that Peeves was around again to pull my hair, but when I turned I saw that no one was there. With a frown I turned back around, intending to carry on my walk to the Great Hall when I noticed that James Potter was blocking my way.

“Oh, hello,” I said, giving a nervous laugh, “Can I just get around you please, James?”

“Do you know how wonderful you are, Abigail?” James asked me, ignoring my question and not even moving out of my way.

I looked at him in shock before I gave a laugh before I could stop myself. What on earth was James playing at?

“Good one, James.” I said, managing to move passed him and make my way again to the Great Hall, wondering just what James was doing.

“I’m being serious, Abigail Higgs, you’re all I ever think about. I want you, Abigail, I need you... In fact, I think that I may just love you.” James called after me.

Well, that stopped me in my tracks very quickly. I turned around and looked at him as my eyes began widening in shock.

“You... what?” I asked him, I had to be dreaming. There was no way in the real world that James Potter would declare his love for me. This surely had to be a trick. My eyes darted around me looking for anyone else around that might have some sort of answer to whatever the hell was going on.

Within seconds my eyes fell on Barry and Elijah, who were looking at James and I in shock. I could faintly hear Barry hissing to Elijah, “We’ve got the wrong person.”

That’s when it hit me what was happening, I had seen them putting a vial of the love potion in their bag. They had put the love potion in James’ drink and now James was declaring his love to me, why?

I thought back to the pull on my hair that I had felt earlier, realising that it must have been one of them pulling my hair out to use on the potion. Those bastards, those absolute bastards, this was all a prank on me and on James.

I could feel the tears of humiliation beginning to prickle at my eyes as I looked back at James, who was smiling at me in adoration. Smiling at me as though I were his whole world, not realising that it was just the potion making him feel this way.

“James, listen to me. Your friends have given you a love potion; I need to take you to a teacher.” I told him, trying to keep my tears at bay as I realised that Barry and Elijah had disappeared. The cowards weren’t even going to help me; they had left me to face a love struck James alone.

James took hold of my hand and gave it a kiss, “I’ll go anywhere with you, Abigail.”

I wanted to believe him; I wanted nothing more than for it to be true. But I couldn’t let James make a fool of himself, I couldn’t let my own feelings get in the way of this. I needed to get him help.

“James, I need to snap you out of this. You don’t love me; it’s just the potion talking.” Even as I said those words, it felt like they were stabbing at me to know that the only time he would ever have feelings for me would be under the influence of a potion. He would never feel anything for me otherwise.

“I do love you, Abigail,” James told me as I tried to pull my hands out of his grasp. I hated this. I hated seeing my daydreams of James beginning to come true and knowing that it was just a cruel trick. He looked hurt that I had taken my hands out of his grasp and he fell to his knees as a pleading look crossed his eyes. “Please believe me, I do love you. I want to marry you, I want to have kids with you, and I want to grow old with you. Why won’t you believe me? We could be so happy together, Abigail. I know that we would, just give us a chance.”

I was shaking my head at him as I tried to back away. I wondered just how I was going to get him to a teacher and try to get him to stop declaring his love for me. Thankfully I saw James’s best friend, William Sutton, storming down the corridor and towards us. He had a look of absolute thunder across his face, he did not look happy in the slightest.

“James, come on, get up off the floor.” William stated, grabbing hold of James’s arm and helping to get him off the floor and onto his feet. “Let’s get you to the Hospital Wing.”

William turned to look at me and I saw an apologetic look cross his face. “I’m so sorry about this, Abigail.”

I gave a nod at him, “It’s not your fault, William,” I told him with a small shrug as I began to feel the humiliation that other people would know about this, fall over me. I wanted the ground to swallow me up.

“No, it’s those two douche bags.” William said, nodding over to Barry and Elijah who had come back; they had obviously been getting William to help them stop James. The laughter had gone from their faces.

“Do you have any idea how serious this is?” William yelled at them; they had the decency to look sorry. “Did you give any thought to what you’ve just put Abigail and James through with this little stunt of yours? How this will make them both feel? You should both be ashamed of yourselves.”

“Sorry,” Barry muttered, his hands finding his long blonde hair nervously. Elijah nodded along with his words as though he was agreeing with them.

“Come on, James. Let’s get you to the Hospital Wing,” William said, tightening his grip on James, who was trying to hold my hand again, I felt so sorry for James for going through this.

“But I want to stay with Abigail.” James stated, smiling at me before turning to William and whispering, "I love her.”

“Abigail has got to go to somewhere, so how about you and I go and get her a present, yeah?” William said to James, who had managed to grab for my hand again and pulled me closer to him.

“Is that what you want, Abigail? Do you want me to get you a present?” James asked me, holding my hand with both of his and holding it to his chest. He was smiling at me as though I were his whole world again and it was killing me inside.

I nodded as I tried not to let the tears form in my eyes, trying to pull my hand from his again, but he didn’t seem to want to let me go. “Yeah, James, I would love for you to get me a present. How about you go with William and I’ll see you later on?”

James nodded and he finally let go of my hand, as I looked down at my hand. I didn't want to look at James anymore because I knew that I couldn’t handle the look in his eyes anymore, not when it was a lie. I felt a hand touch the side of my face gently before feeling James kiss me lightly on the side of the face. He pulled away from me and I looked up in shock to see that William was managing to pull him down the corridor.

“If my Abigail wants a present, I shall get her the best present I can find,” he told me before I lost sight of them both.

I didn’t stay in that spot for long, running away as soon as I could. I sprinted towards the Hufflepuff common room as all thoughts of food left me and tears blurred my vision. I hated Barry and Elijah, absolutely hated them.

How could I ever face anyone again? How could I ever face James again?


End file.
